Occupy Times Square: Over 10,000 Peaceful Protestors, So NYPD Arrests Dozens

Today’s Occupy Times Square grassroots flashmob protest, part of the greater Occupy Wall Street movement, was about as peaceful as could be — until New York’s Finest, aka, the NYPD, decided they had had enough, and reportedly arrested 71 protestors merely for being in Times Square. As you can see from this video we shot around 5:30 PM, and from this aerial video footage, there were 10,000 — 20,000 protestors in Times Square, all peaceful. In fact, had NYPD not barricaded and corralled the peaceful protestors, there would have been no need for the police in the first place.

But NYPD officers decided a few hours into the protest that it was time to bring into Times Square the mounted police units that had been waiting on nearby side streets (photo, right, taken on West 45th Street west of Broadway, around 6:00 PM), along with counter-terrorism units (image, top,) and that’s when things got out of control.

As protestors all afternoon chanted, “We are the 99%,” “Over here, over there, occupy Times Square,” “All day, all week, occupy Wall Street,” “This is what democracy looks like,” and “banks got bailed out, we got sold out,” into the early evening protestors reminded police, “this is a public street.” But that didn’t matter to NYC cops.

The Daily News quotes an NYPD statement that admits to arresting 42 in Times Square, no mention of the other 29. 24 were arrested earlier in the day as well in the march toward Times Square:

“At about 8PM a large disorderly group at 46th St near 6th was given at least three separate warnings to disperse and when they did not 42 arrests were made.

“At about 6:15 pm today there were three arrests at W 46th St and 7th Ave of individuals trying to take down police barriers. As arrests were made, a few began chanting “fight back” but most did not take up the cry. Some who tried to pull down barriers would run to the back of the crowd to avoid arrest, and also push the crowd from the back to confront police. They started counting down and pushing others in front against police and barriers.”

Of course, the NYPD continued to embarrass themselves today, with more beatings and possibly unlawful arrests, including locking into a Citibank branch ATM lobby citizens who reportedly went in to the bank to withdraw their money from their accounts.

For excellent minute-by-minute coverage, visit both Reuters and The New York Daily News.

(Image, top: Lucy Kafanov)